Thus the demand for labour was abnormally great, and had been created with abnormal rapidity, and the supply could not possibly be provided by the free population alone.

The lower classes of city and country were not suited to the work wanted, either by capacity or inclination.

It was not for a free Roman to be at the beck and call of an employer, like the clerks and underlings of to-day, or to act as servant in a great household; and for a great part of the necessary work he was not sufficiently well educated.

Far less was it possible for him to work on the great cattle-runs.

And the State wanted the best years of his life for service in the army, which, as has been well remarked, was the real industry of the Roman freeman.